Doha, Qatar, November 6 – Volkan Gogtepe and Murat Giginoglu finished day three of the inaugural Doha Open tired but happy after they continued their impressive form on Thursday with two wins over US teams that ensured their progress to the second knockout round.
First the pair saved six match points against Derek Olson and Stafford Slick in their final pool match to win 2-1 (21-16, 13-21, 21-19). They then returned to centre court later in the day for a more straightforward 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) defeat of William Montgomery and Jeremy Casebeer in the first knockout round.
“Today was a very important day with the last match in the pool and this one,” Giginoglu said. “I have to thank my partner and my coach.
“We made a good start to the day and were very happy with that result. Both the USA teams were very strong, but we had to stay very focused and take the match point by point.”
Gogtepe and Giginoglu teamed up at the start of 2014 and after finding their feet together they began to win medals on their National Tour and the European Tour. With their confidence enhanced they impressed on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, first with a quarter-final place at the Sao Paolo Grand Slam and then the Xiamen Open.
Next up for the pair is a meeting with Parana Open gold medallists Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter and a win would ensure a third quarter-final finish at least.
“We finished fifth in Brazil and two tournaments in total this year,” Giginoglu said. “We want to try and match that here.”
Student champs taking great strides
Tim Holler and Jonas Schroder continued their impressive rise as a team in 2014 by defeating third seeds Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Toms Smedins 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-12).
The result ensured that they progressed as the top team in Pool C and went straight into the second elimination round after letting one match point slip before they wrapped up the victory.
“The key was not to think too much in that type of situation, just to play exactly like we did before and I’m glad we made the right decisions,” Schroder said
“We were a little bit nervous, but the conditions were pretty tough and really windy and it made play hard to handle.”
Holler and Schroder have played together since start of 2014 when they made their FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour debuts at the Fuzhou Open.
Their greatest success so far came earlier in the year when they won the University Beach Volleyball World Championships and they also added one gold, two silvers and one bronze on the German National Tour.
“It is second to us winning the University Championships in Porto this year. But this is close and we have to see where we can go in the tournament now,” Holler added.
“It was incredible, especially the last game because we didn’t expect a victory in this match because they are pretty good players and they’ve played pretty well in the tournament so far, so we are happy to take first place.”
Doha is making its debut as a World Tour venue. Previously it hosted beach volleyball as part of the Doha 2006 Asian Games. The World Tour is made up of 10 Grand Slam tournaments and eight Opens. The next and final tournament on the 2014 World Tour is the Mangaung Open in South Africa that runs from December 9-14.
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